1 in 100 Americans now incarcerated
We incarcerate more people than any country in the world, including China, whose population is more than five and half times larger than ours:
For the first time in the nation’s history, more than one in 100 American adults is behind bars, according to a new report.
Nationwide, the prison population grew by 25,000 last year, bringing it to almost 1.6 million. Another 723,000 people are in local jails. The number of American adults is about 230 million, meaning that one in every 99.1 adults is behind bars.
Incarceration rates are even higher for some groups. One in 36 Hispanic adults is behind bars, based on Justice Department figures for 2006. One in 15 black adults is, too, as is one in nine black men between the ages of 20 and 34.
Were there any credence to the notion that Barack Obama would ease off the drug war, we might for that reason alone give him a second look, because this liberty-killing shit needs to stop. But there isn’t.
Titled “One in 100: Behind Bars in America 2008,” the report, from the Pew Center on the States, is available in pdf.
And why are so many Americans behind bars? In significant part, because of the drug war:
Simple drug possession convictions make up about 5% of the federal prison population and about 27% of the state prison population, according to the federal government’s own figures. Other nonviolent drug offenders were charged with nothing more than “sale or intent to sell” illegal intoxicants to willing buyers.
The legal system’s reach into American life — largely as a result of drug prohibition — extends even farther than the Pew Center figures would indicate. In Probation and Parole in the United States 2006 (PDF), the Justice Department revealed that “About 3.2% of the U.S. adult population, or 1 in every 31 adults, were incarcerated or on probation or parole at yearend 2006.”
That means that police, courts and prison authorities currently play a significant role in the lives of almost 1/3 of the adult population. And most of those unfortunate people are subject to loss of liberty and government supervision because they like to get high or want make a few bucks by helping other people get high. If their choice of “cocktails” were different, we’d call them bar patrons and bartenders. (Bold added; italics in original.)
Were there any credence to the notion that Barack Obama would ease off the drug war, we might for that reason alone give him a second look, because this liberty-killing shit needs to stop. But there isn’t.
Jeffrey Miron makes the case for legalization:
(HT: Megan McArdle)